Saturday, September 18, 2010

Assassin Bug Nymph – Zelus spp.

I spotted this little fellow on the underside of an oak leaf. This is a nymph of an assassin bug in the genus Zelus. If you look closely at the largest picture in the collage below you can see a feeding tube called a rostrum tucked under its head. It uses the rotrum to puncture the body of its prey and inject saliva that contains enzymes to kill the prey and liquify the innards so it can suck it out. That brings a new image of "feeding tube" to mind!

While taking these photos, a red squirrel in a walnut tree began fussing incessantly.

It kept a close eye on me and the cats (Max and a neighbor's cat that we call TK) as we made our rounds. No way we were going to be able to sneak up on anything.

Not too far from the red squirrel and the assassin bug is the flower bed with the hollyhocks. The 6 feet tall hollyhocks have been blooming all summer. Their white and yellow flowers are not particularly large or striking but they do have a certain charm. At least the deer think so, and unless I spray a deterent on them, they never get a chance to flower. I think the deer like the flower buds best of all. The hollyhocks are also favorites of the bees and bumblebees. And it sure looks like the bees do a good job of pollinating them; just look at the lovely seed heads!

With all of those seeds, the deer should have plenty of flower buds to snack on next year.﻿

Nice shot of the Assassin bug and enjoyed seeing your Red Squirrel images. I used to see them when I grew up in Cornwall but they died out there in the 1980s although there are active plans to bring them back very soon.

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About Me

In 2004, Dennis and I started moving to Belize from the frozen north of Rochester, MN. It took us a while to get here, but in December 2012 we were here to stay along with our cat, Max. We live on the Caribbean Sea along a stretch of beach called Englishtown, just north of the mouth of the Monkey River, Toledo District. As of 2016, Englishtown is home to 5 humans and 3 dogs, distributed over 3 households. Max lives on in our hearts.

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